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Saturday, 24 August 2013

This crafting stuff can be very expensive, so many toys to try out so little money. But, there is always a way, and if you are prepared to do research, and hunt the internet, and experiment, then really there isn't much that you cannot do 'on the cheap'

Recently I came across a video on youtube, where the lady made her own silicone molds using bathroom sealant.

THIS ONE... is the video that I watched, but I noticed that there are lots.

I bought just a small tube of white bathroom sealant to try out this method, I got mine in the £1 shop. In the video the lady says to mix this with a powder of your choice, baby powder(talc), baking powder or cornflour. This is to take away the sticky of the silicone, and make it form into a dough like ball.

I used cornflour, as that is already in my craftroom.

Coat your hands with a little vaseline to prevent the silicone sticking to you.

I emptied the tube onto a non stick mat, and poured on a generous amount of cornflour, then started to mix it. Just keep adding cornflour till it forms a non sticky dough.

I then rolled it into a ball, pressed it down, and immediately pushed in my embellishments. I rubbed on a little vaseline to each embellishment before pushing into the 'dough'

Then leave aside to set. The video says 12 to 24hrs. I would say that mine was dry within about 4hrs, but it was very,very warm weather. So best to leave it longer just in case.

Once set, the embellies popped right out, the only one that stuck a little was the one that I forgot to coat in vaseline.

I fine the quickest and easiest filler to use is hot glue, and this super hot glue gun from PaperArtsy is perfect for this job. Fill them up and leave them to set.

Hot glue can get a bit stringy, don't worry those bits can be trimmed off.

Just like a regular silicone mold, you just flex in your hand and the embellies pop out.

Here they are as them came out, some have extra bits of glue that need trimming off.

Darcy you are a STAR! I was eyeballing that make of mold stuff (I forget the name but it was the one that was at Ally Pally) but just couldn't justify the cost for such a teeny tub. I am definitely trying this!

This is SO impressive. I might try it with polymer clay, since I don't have paper clay. I love what you did and I appreciate your pointing me in the direction of the video, too. However, I thought your write-up was equally informative. I love it.

Oh, wow—a huge "THANK YOU" for the tip and video link! I work with several types of clay (polymer, paper and metal) and this will be SO much less expensive than the two-part specialty products. Add to that the bonus of extra working time, and it's a home run for the do-it-yourself craft supply team!

Wow, thanks Darci, another recipe to try. Though, not wanting to spent loads on the bought mould making stuff and possibly making a pigs ear of it, I've just spent a small fortune on silicone moulds after you created Colin and shared the link to Jonni's air dry paper clay tutorial which I then had to make & BTW worked out great, though I used a lightweight tub of shop brand "sand less filler" not the joint compound or the UK equivalent. I love how your cool embellies turned out especially after the treasure gold was applied. You'd never guess they were hand created this way and with hot glue no less, another thing I would never thought of putting in the mould, just shows the mould is heat proof as you'd expect silicone moulds to be. This is the first time visiting your blog, loving it. I usually I see what you post on PA but I'm glad I popped by. I'm following you too now.I love that you continue to explore and find ways for us to create stuff without spending too much money, so we can buy stamps and other goodies with the money we save, lol.Alexandra x

They turned out great! I will keep trying til I have the silicone/cornstarch recipe just right. I am so glad to see that your worked great the first time out. I have a heck of a time getting the silicone out of the petals of the flower cabochons I used. I forgot to coat them before pushing them into the mold. lol! Thank you for sharing this with us. :-)

your posting couldn't have come at a better time! I was trying to find a way to make some molding for furniture appliques and I really like this recipe best of all I've found. One question, how big will this make? I want to do something about 3" x 12" and 1/2" deep. Thanks so much oh and I love your blog. First time visitor, this showed up on my pinterest feed! regards.

Hi, the 2 moulds that I made from this recipe measure approx 3.5 inches across and are about 1/4 inch deep. This may not stretch to the size you need. So I would double the recipe. hope that helps. D.x

I've just seen this post - what a great technique. I've been looking at some Sculpey face molds on evilbay and even on there, they're not particularly cheap so I will have to try this to see if I can make the molds I want and at what it will cost, it's no biggie if it goes wrong. Thanks for sharing this, I would never of thought of this as an alternative x

Is this mold food safe? I would guess not but just want to check. Trying to find an alternative for making a chocolate mold than the expensive 2-part silicone putty molds that set up too quickly. Thanks!

Is this mold food safe? I would guess not but just want to check. Trying to find an alternative for making a chocolate mold than the expensive 2-part silicone putty molds that set up too quickly. Thanks!